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Thursday, October 08, 2015

Tramore Valley Parkrun Cancelled...

Just over the two weeks ago, the very first 5k parkrun was held in the new Tramore Valley Park in Cork City. It has now just been announced that it will be cancelled until further notice.

Here is a statement from the organisers...."Apologies for the short notice but the event for next Sat (10th) is cancelled. The reason is due to the City Council needing to do a risk assessment because of the high volume of traffic in the park & this will be carried out early next week. Obviously we're disappointed at having to cancel an event but as I'm sure you'll appreciate the safety of the participants is the foremost concern of both the council & the volunteers.

There will be a further update next week."

The photo above shows the car park last Saturday when 238 people took part. On the day the overflow car park had to be used.

Such a pity. I went for the first time last Saturday 3rd and was looking forward to going again. It will be a great amenity for the area. Well done to the Parkrun organisers, but Cork City Council should have known how popular these events are and should have been prepared for the parking implications.

Surely a traffic risk assessment was carried out before the parkrun kicked off? Hopefully it will be back next week however 'cancelled until further notice' could be another year or two with the speed the city council seem to operate!

Crap What a pity.Typical for the council not to have done all this risk assessment before things kick off. I hope it will get back up and running soon.It would be a pity for the city to lose this great event before it even takes off.

Hopefully only temporary, great event. While they are reviewing risk, I wonder would they put a bit Tarmac where road meets outer path, a bit of a hairpin bend, hard to take on loose surface. Looking forward to next run.

Typical typical typical the sooner the amalgamation of the City Council and County County takes place the better, some of the municipal bodies are a waste of space and money, surely a risk assessment took place prior to the first run, it is not as if Park Runs are a new venture, there are numerous ones countrywide so therefore it should have been quite easy to estimate the number at a city centre location. This venue has catered for a high volume of traffic before for example at the recent All Ireland BMX fixture. I say do not let the Corpo knock this on its head, the City needs this park and it has been left idle for far too long.

Here's a novel idea: just carpool. The number of cars with only one person in them leaving on the last two Saturday mornings easily outnumbered those carrying passengers.

Most runners attending on Saturday mornings must know at least one other runner by now. If EVERY driver committed to either taking a lift or providing a lift to one other runner the car park would never fill and whatever traffic risk that is being referred to would be greatly reduced.

This would be a small price to pay for a worthwhile event that is already free of charge.

Also last Saturday there was several kids rugby teams either playing or training not too sure at the same time as park run . So that would double the volume of traffic. So lets get it sorted. sooner rather than later.

My sympathies to the Parkrun people. They seem to be the latest victims in City Council's bungling ineptitude. The Council have previous form here. They also cancelled a huge Family Fun Day event (at the eleventh hour) for the same location a few months ago, where months of voluntary preparation went down the pan. I note from their official 'Masterplan', the Multi-use area is supposed to be able to accommodate 5,000 people! If the 300 park runners put them under that much pressure, then someone has got it badly wrong, again. Hopefully, there might be someone with a bit of common sense in the council who can resolve this quickly. Keep up the great work Parkrun. A great initiative!

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'If you want to win something, run 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon' - Emil Zatopek, Winner of the 5k, 10k and Marathon, Helsinki Olympics, 1952 and broke the existing Olympic record in each event.